The ProRanger Philadelphia program is an academic, technical skills training, and internship program that is cooperatively administered by the National Park Service and Temple University. The program was established to recruit, train and employ law enforcement park rangers for the National Park Service.
Students take coursework during the academic year at Temple University and participate in internships at National Park Service sites during the summer. Follow their experiences here.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Testing the Radar - GETT

Allison, me and Ryan at the visitor center here at Gettysburg, ready to answer questions. Picture only tangentially related to the post below.

Last Saturday, I was able to ride along with my supervisor during patrol. Up until now, I'd only ridden in one of the big the SUVs - but since today was Park Day and we had a massive amount of volunteers show up to work on reconstructing the historical fence line along either side of one of the park roads, we wanted to make sure the work zone was as safe as possible. Therefore, it was time to take one of the interceptors and watch for speeders.

Tuning forks which vibrate at the speed marked.

The people driving through the park were pretty well-behaved, so we didn't make any stops (which is good.) - but I did get to see how the radar is tested before use. It involves little tuning forks, which when struck vibrate at a specific frequency (35 and 65 MPH for the two in the picture) - if the radar accurately detects the vibration of the forks, then it's good to go.